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Celebrity Bowling
"From Hollywood, (insert celebrity team #1) meet (insert celebrity team #2) on Celebrity Bowling! Hello again, everybody. I'm Jed Allan, and welcome again to Celebrity Bowling, the game in which Hollywood's biggest stars do what millions of Americans do every day: have a good time bowling!" Celebrity Bowling featured celebrities bowling their way to win prizes for audience partners. Gameplay Four celebrities played each game, separated into two pairs (usually each pair included one man and one woman). The rules of the game were known as "best ball"; for each frame, both members of each team would roll a ball on their own lane. If neither of the two teammates rolled a strike, then the person who rolled the worse shot (either a bigger split or whoever knocked down fewer pins) would then roll for the spare on the other lane. Players alternated lanes after each frame. Each team was tied to a person in the audience, who would win prizes based on the score the pair accumulated in the game if they won. The partner would win increasingly valuable prizes (mostly home appliances) if a team scored 120, 150, 180, or 210 points (with the highest category usually resulting in the partner winning a car or vacation; the top category was reached only once in the show's history). There was also a bonus prize for the team that bowled the most strikes, and (in later episodes) a super bonus prize for a team who bowled a turkey (three strikes in a row). To accommodate the half-hour time slot, the sixth and seventh frames of each game were typically not televised. Notable Scores In Episode 70, the team of Michael Cole and Tige Andrews scored a 266, just 34 points shy of a perfect score of 300. Their game easily surpassed the 210 score needed to win a new car, which was the top prize at that time. Jed Allan remarked that the previous high score was a 206, which was reached by Greg Morris and John Beradino in Episode 10. Cole and Andrews recorded a "mark" (strike or spare) in every frame bowled, as did Morris and Beradino. The lowest score recorded during the original series is presumed to be a 66 by the team of Charles Nelson Reilly and Robert Clary in Episode 142. Reference was made at the show close by Jed Allan to the pair having "beaten" the long-standing record of 67 which was bowled by two of the Lennon Sisters. Revivals In 1987, 26 episodes of The New Celebrity Bowling were produced for national syndication. Jed Allan again hosted. In 2008, TVS Television Network began producing Celebrity Bowling for TV syndication, using the AMF Lanes at the Silver Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas, NV. Thirteen episodes were produced. Trivia This show was the by-product of a 1969 syndicated special, The Celebrity Bowling Classic, which ran for 90 minutes. Merchandise A record album called The Celebrity Bowling Christmas Album was released in 1973, where a couple dozen clips from the syndicated series, as well as a recording of Jingle Bells made from bowling sfx were featured. (NOTE: This short, crudely made novelty record may have not been released commercially.) bowling.jpg Studio Metromedia Square, Los Angeles, CA Links Celebrity Bowling @ Game Shows '75 Celebrity Bowling @ hulu Celebrity Bowling @ MeTV Site YouTube Videos Ed Ames & McLean Stevenson vs. Tom Kennedy & Richard Deacon Kate Jackson & Edward Albert vs. Frankie Avalon & Rory Calhoun *Part 1 *Part 2 The Lennon Sisters *Show #1 *Show #2 *Show #3 Category:Bowling Category:Celebrity Category:Sport Category:Syndicated shows Category:Long-Running Category:1971 premieres Category:1978 endings Category:1987 premieres Category:1987 endings Category:2008 premieres Category:2008 endings Category:Daytime shows